alternatehistory.com
Major Global Disaster: The Black Death
The generally interconnected world of the the 13th century, with most of Asia under Naiman rule with the exception of the Indian Subcontinent and much of South-East Asia is utterly disconnected in the mid-fourteenth century by a global pandemic, known by later historians as the Black Death, although contemporary chroniclers did not use this term to describe it. Rather, it was labelled as pestilence, epidemic or mortality by contemporary chroniclers.
View attachment 539310
Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, also known to be the source of the plague of Justinian in the 6th century AD, the Black Death originated somewhere near the Tengri (Tianshan) Mountains of Central Asia. The bacteria was hosted by a population of fleas, which themselves were carried by a number of ground rodents, namely rats, but also other species, such as marmots across much of Asia. While at first present in isolated villages near Lake Issyk-kul, once it reaches major towns along the Silk Road network, it spreads rapidly across Asia.
View attachment 539312
The Oriental Rat flea. The principal carrier of the pandemic
The first cases could be dated to around 1338 around Balasagun near Lake Issyk-kul; by 1346 it has devastated much of Tartary, India, Sogdia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia. When the plague hit China, it too spread dramatically
Death toll
The death toll was catastrophic. In Europe, between one third and one half of the population died; higher mortality rates could be observed predominantly among the more urbanized regions; backwaters fared of better. The population of Florence was decreased to around 40% of its pre-plague numbers; Hamburg and Bremen have also reported mortality rates of around 60 to 70% .
Asia has also witnessed catastrophic mortality rates; taking Hubei in China with 80% mortality; once again highland rural regions were not as hardly hit as areas with a greater population density.
In Africa, the plague is known to have hit the Mediterranean basin as well as the Nile Valley; trade routes have carried it also across the Teneré desert ot the major population centres of Egnovy, Huasaland and Kanem; more isolaed populations living in the Rift Valley or the Congo Rainforest are thought to have been untouched by the pandemic.
A minor wave of epidemic has also reached Vinland (more on that in the repsective chapter).
Climate and Ecology
High mortality rates and depopulation has had two major side effects. Firstly, it allows the reforestation of many areas in Europe. As crop fields and rice fields in Asia lay abandoned and covered by forests, they cause another major side-effect of global cooling, known as the Little Ice Age. The process may have started even before, but with the Black Death life in more northerly latitudes will become much tougher with crop failures and other calamities being common. This will of course result in the abandonment of the Norse colony in Greenland; they are likely to move to Vinland, which in itself will as well experience a southerly migration either to place like Powhatan (in the Chesepeake Bay area) and Manhattan, or the Great Lakes region.
View attachment 539313
A plague doctor in typical attire
Social
With many people and peasants killed, labour is becoming more expensive and the peasants are going to demand better treatment and higher payment. This will be a case mainly in areas which were particularly heavily hit. With a dramatic population decline, the survivors actually improve their quality of living, as they get higher pays, and would have access to more resources. Labour is costly, and therefore people are motivated to come up with labour-saving innovations.
As fields lay abandoned, food becomes scarce and is generally prohibited from leaving the realms. This of course caused a decline in trade. As a result, the world in the late 14th century is by far less interconnected than at its beginning, and European knowledge of lands beyond the Rhomaic empire is greatly outdated.
View attachment 539314
The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel
The high death rates mean a "zero hour", where the old social order is disrupted and affected areas are generally in a position where the new cultural and social order is not yet shaped, thus allowing for a general cultural change.
Lastly a flavour song:
View attachment 539310
Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, also known to be the source of the plague of Justinian in the 6th century AD, the Black Death originated somewhere near the Tengri (Tianshan) Mountains of Central Asia. The bacteria was hosted by a population of fleas, which themselves were carried by a number of ground rodents, namely rats, but also other species, such as marmots across much of Asia. While at first present in isolated villages near Lake Issyk-kul, once it reaches major towns along the Silk Road network, it spreads rapidly across Asia.
View attachment 539312
The Oriental Rat flea. The principal carrier of the pandemic
The first cases could be dated to around 1338 around Balasagun near Lake Issyk-kul; by 1346 it has devastated much of Tartary, India, Sogdia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia. When the plague hit China, it too spread dramatically
Death toll
The death toll was catastrophic. In Europe, between one third and one half of the population died; higher mortality rates could be observed predominantly among the more urbanized regions; backwaters fared of better. The population of Florence was decreased to around 40% of its pre-plague numbers; Hamburg and Bremen have also reported mortality rates of around 60 to 70% .
Asia has also witnessed catastrophic mortality rates; taking Hubei in China with 80% mortality; once again highland rural regions were not as hardly hit as areas with a greater population density.
In Africa, the plague is known to have hit the Mediterranean basin as well as the Nile Valley; trade routes have carried it also across the Teneré desert ot the major population centres of Egnovy, Huasaland and Kanem; more isolaed populations living in the Rift Valley or the Congo Rainforest are thought to have been untouched by the pandemic.
A minor wave of epidemic has also reached Vinland (more on that in the repsective chapter).
Climate and Ecology
High mortality rates and depopulation has had two major side effects. Firstly, it allows the reforestation of many areas in Europe. As crop fields and rice fields in Asia lay abandoned and covered by forests, they cause another major side-effect of global cooling, known as the Little Ice Age. The process may have started even before, but with the Black Death life in more northerly latitudes will become much tougher with crop failures and other calamities being common. This will of course result in the abandonment of the Norse colony in Greenland; they are likely to move to Vinland, which in itself will as well experience a southerly migration either to place like Powhatan (in the Chesepeake Bay area) and Manhattan, or the Great Lakes region.
View attachment 539313
A plague doctor in typical attire
Social
With many people and peasants killed, labour is becoming more expensive and the peasants are going to demand better treatment and higher payment. This will be a case mainly in areas which were particularly heavily hit. With a dramatic population decline, the survivors actually improve their quality of living, as they get higher pays, and would have access to more resources. Labour is costly, and therefore people are motivated to come up with labour-saving innovations.
As fields lay abandoned, food becomes scarce and is generally prohibited from leaving the realms. This of course caused a decline in trade. As a result, the world in the late 14th century is by far less interconnected than at its beginning, and European knowledge of lands beyond the Rhomaic empire is greatly outdated.
View attachment 539314
The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel
The high death rates mean a "zero hour", where the old social order is disrupted and affected areas are generally in a position where the new cultural and social order is not yet shaped, thus allowing for a general cultural change.
Lastly a flavour song:
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 700